i fixed my hawk pro after a crash. when i turn my heli on the blades look like one is level and the other is negitive. how do i adjust the one blade to level it up.this was my first crash. i had to replace the main shaft the flybar feathering shaft and the tail boom and blades. thanks for your replys

thanks i dont see any bent linkage, but thanks a lot i should have already checked that

If you have a pitch gauge then check each blade to see if they both give the same reading. If not mark the blade you think is correct with a piece of tracking tape, then spool her up and watch to see if the blades are out of track then adjust the blade without the tracking tape to match the one with.

thanks satwelsh. i dont have a pitch gauge but i do have tracking tape is there another way to tell wich blade to adjust.with my hawkpro turned on and the throttle stick in the middle i have one blade that looks exactly level and one blade that looks like negative pitch while makeing sure the flybar is level.should there be no pitch or negative. thanks

If you are going to tinker with helicopters you might as well resign yourself to the fact you are going to need some basic tools, one of which is a pitch gauge, its really the only way to properly setup a helicopter.

ok thanks alot guys i'll have to go get a pitch gauge thanks

cut your own pitch gauge from a piece of paper. make it 10 degrees at high stick and zero degrees at center stick and -10 degrees at low stick. zero is easy to measure (realitive to the flybar) and use your paper to eyeball 10 degrees. then do the tracking like the other guy suggested. this isn't rocket science. if the engine lugs take out the same amount from both blades or adjust it with the radio if it's a modern radio. remember the tangent of 10 degrees is opposite over adjacent -- good luck

eyeball? I wouldn't eyeball anything... get a pitch guage, do it right, and save yourself the heartache and worry of possibly causing another crash.. you're gonna need a pitch guage eventually, and a piece of paper ain't gonna cut it. Linkage measurements that are on instruction manuals are only estimations. Virtually every set of main blades out there will track differently than the next. And if you don't properly track your blades, you risk losing control of your helicopter as a result of various anomolies, one of which is called a "woof and poof"...

Correct me... don't you "eyeball" even with a pitch gauge? Perhaps "tharrrs a Nu fangled gadget outs thars iz doont knoows abuout" -- the pitch gauge I use is eyeballed with reference to the flybar and I rarely change that setting. The thumb screw is tight on 10 degrees and that's where I usually start. I happen to own a pitch gauge myself but if I didn't I could use paper with no problem. Most beginner kits have flat bottom blades so the paper can go against the flat surface with no problem. This newbie obviously has a budget and maybe that $20 bill will be spent on fuel for more stick time -- a good trade off in my opinion. Or I could be wrong and he buys crack with it… I don’t know him. I was trying to give him a less expensive option, that’s all. The machine isn’t going to self destruct if the blades are a degree off of the mark, especially if his tracking is right. He’s probably going to be an inch off the ground for a gallon or too anyway… come on don’t you remember what it was like? In the "old days" the manufactures included that pitch gauge outline to be cut out of the manual, but we are much smarter now and have more money to spend on this hobby, right? Pitch gauges for everyone, I always say. IMHO tracking is more important than the absolute number of degrees the blades are set too... but that's me. Enjoy your day there fella.

Most beginner kits have flat bottom blades so the paper can go against the flat surface with no problem.

that's not always the case, especially with nitro/gasser kits that are 3d capable. it's not considered a 3d-capable heli until it's got symmetrical blades.

IMHO tracking is more important than the absolute number of degrees the blades are set too... but that's me. Enjoy your day there fella.

absolute number of degrees is also important to know. A beginner may not want to go to +-11 degrees because it adds sensitivity to the collective, as well as bogs the engine. Without knowing the pitch range of a helicopter could result in a BEGINNER losing control of a heli due to a lack of experience in pitch management. Have a nice day.

If the mains had different pitches, they wouldn't track would they? What the pitch guage does is get them close, you get that tweak with the last half or full turn on the links by "tracking" the blades.

As far as figuring out which blade to adjust while tracking; if you dont have a mark on the blade that you can see while it's spooled up then I just pick a blade, I'm sure to figure a way to know what blade I "tweaked" when it's spooled down, then make a change to the links and spool it up again. You can tell right away if you picked the right blade as the tracking will either be better or worse. If it's worse, undo the change you just did and do it to the other blade. (you have a 50/50 chance to get it right the first time).

Pitch Guages

1) If the OP says it's out by eye, then it will certainly still be out when he sticks a pitch guage on it.

Sounds to me like he's got a problem that needs fixing, and for all we know, he might need to spend his $20 on parts first anyway.

To answer his question: Depending on the position of the rotor head, the elevator and aileron contols can affect the pitch of the blades individually, so get those right (i.e. neutral), if they are then he is correct in that the blades should have identical pitch to each other.

He could do some simple dignosis if it's so far out it's easy to see by eye: rotate the main rotor 180° and see if the same blade or the other is now wrong... then work through the linkages step by step and see if you can spot the problem.

2) I've made my own pitch guage using paper: I stuck it to something rigid (being cheap, I used thick card). It's in 3 parts, and it clamps firmly to the blade, and I can easily read it in 0.5" graduations. There have been a couple of designs posted on here in the last few months, but I chose to make my own.

--Kevin. Sponsored in the UK by my Missus.

The issue of nuetral swashplate does not effect the tracking as far as I know. Everytime the blade goes past that point of the swashplate it sees the same angle and should show the same track regardless of it being nuetral or otherwise. You are looking at the track at the same point on the swash on every rotation. Now if something is loose and drifting every 180 that's different but that's hard to imagine.

--Kevin. Sponsored in the UK by my Missus.

The issue of nuetral swashplate does not effect the tracking as far as I know.

It may not affect tracking as much, but it will affect the maximum/minimum pitch of the heli. Mechanically, you want the helicopter capable of +/-10* of pitch. Some helis are capable of 11*, my Trex600 is currently set at +/-14. Neutral swash also affects the aileron/elevator AFRs. If these are not zero degrees at mid-stick, and +/-7* or so at their extremes, the heli may not maneuver as it should.

agreed... no question... but the absolute angle of attack is not that important as long as both blades are equal -- that's my ony point here. Yes, the rotor speed will be wrong. Yes, the left stick will be more or less resposnive. Yes, you could lug and overheat the engine. I'll even add that the colective to tail pitch mix could be adversly effected. But the bird will hover and probably FFF regardless of the absolute angle of the colective pitch (within a reasonable eyeball detectable range). After that it's just fine tunning and a pitch gauge is not absolutly necessary - just good tracking. Besides with today's computer radios we just build in maximum throw and adjust the ATV, right?. I can make it what ever you want it to be at the field. I've never even measured my Blade CP pitch except that it is roughly zero at half stick when in high idle. I have no idea if it is +/-10, +/-11 or less, don't know - don't care. If he head speed is good I'm happy. No pitch gauge is needed to tell me that just good tracking and good head speed.

what other helis do you fly?

I have a couple of old Schluters, a Magic and a Superior that were in storage for 15+ years (they still are) and an old Shuttle and an old Concept 30 that I bought at auction also 15 years ago. Then in December I bought a used Blade CP for $100 and a used G2 simulator at a swap meet and now I'm hooked again. I'm now doing more with that cheep little blade then I ever did with my nitro helis. I guess just because repairs are so cheep I just don't care about the crash. I'm inverted for short bursts, nose in hover, piros, tick tocks, hammer turns and fake autos... I'm having a ball. I just ordered a Hawk Pro from Tower ($185 with the coupon and free shipping -- can you believe how cheep this stuff is now?) and a used TT39 from a friend, a used Futaba 350 HH gyro and I'm going to use my old JR PCM10 from the Magic. The Hawk is ready for run up now and I'm just waiting for warmer weather. I keep looking at my old birds with the mechanical servo rockers wooden servo trays and flywheel gyros and I'll get them flying again but for now it's just the blade and the hawk. My ten year old son is asking for the CX2 but I think I might give him my CP and buy the CP Pro for myself. I figure that he will master the CX in a weekend and then it's just wasted money, right. I'm going to put the training gear on the CP and let him go at it. At $20-$30 a crash... why not. It's just that I fly it everyday on my lunch break so he needs his own bird. If you know someone looking to sell a CP Pro for cheep, let me know.